Environment

More News

The Office of Student Accounts (OSA) does its part to follow American University’s efforts to promote and implement sustainable practices. Since last November, in an effort to reduce the amount of paper generated, OSA began to encourage the use of electronic 1098T forms. The IRS-mandated document serves to alert students that they may be eligible for federal income tax education credits.

Last year, 12,893 paper 1098T forms were mailed to students, and 1,739 forms were sent electronically.

This year, as a result of OSA’s promotion of electronic forms and student support and participation, only 8,992 paper 1098T forms were mailed to students while 5,857 forms were sent electronically.

“A reduction of more than 3,900 paper 1098T forms is a great start. As we continue to look for more opportunities to go green, we aim to reduce the amount of paper generated even more next year,” noted Mark Welch, Bursar.

The offices of Student Accounts and Information Technology work continuously to improve student services and implement sustainable practices. To encourage greater use of electronic 1098T forms, the OSA began a “Go Eagles, Go Green” campaign in which every student who opted to receive their form electronically by January 6, was entered automatically in a raffle to win an iPad2. On February 16, three winners were chosen randomly.

The campaign and event proved to be successful, as one AU student noted, “Just came from the Go Eagles, Go Green event and wanted to say thanks for hosting it. From a student perspective, it’s a cool thing to do. The event was a success in my book!”